William Behnken born in 1943, has been a life-long resident of New York. He began his formal studies as an artist at the High School of Music and Art and earned his M.A. and B.A, degrees at the City College of New York where he has been teaching for over three decades. Behnken has also taught drawing and printmaking at the Provincetown Art Association and at the National Academy of Design School of Fine Arts, and is currently an Instructor in Printmaking at The Art Students League.
Behnken is a member and former president of the Society of American Graphic Artists. His work has won awards from the National Academy as well as from Audubon Artists and numerous other juried exhibitions. Among the most recent are a Gold Medal of Honor from Audubon Artists, the Emile and Dines Carlsen Award , and the Ralph Fabri / Leo Meissner Prizes from the National Academy of Design. Behnken was honored by the City College Art Alumni Association by being given their Lifetime Achievement Award.
In 2006 the Print Club of Albany commissioned Behnken to produce their Annual Collector’s Print. Behnken’s working process was the subject of an article in American Artists Magazine in May 2007.
